October 19, 2008 - CURT REPUDIATES THE FALSE REPORTING

Ok, well I just had to set the record straight. I hate Vegas for many reasons. One, it is easier to stay in town and just throw your money out the window. Second, I hate Vegas because my wife has no control over money there. Ask her what time she left the casino after blowing a wad of money just before we got married. Third - Do I really need a third? - Come on.

As for the crawling, he is using both sides very well thank you and you would have a great video of him crawling across the rug as he did several times today. However. I called Chris in with the camera just as he was getting ready to go on a distance-record setting crawl. I just mentioned that she should not make a sound or he would be distracted. Well folks, he took off with lightening speed prompting Chris to say "good job Brownie" or something of the sort. Anyway, the Brown immediately broke stride and stared at mom, forgeting the rattle prize that awaited him. Must keep focus tomorrow. Well, he still gets the victory throw in the air...

October 18, 2008 - NEW LOOK TO THE BLOG COMING SOON!

Well... the day has finally come - almost. We are finally shifting over to a "real" blog. This one that we have been using is kind of a pain to update, so we are moving ahead with the rest of the world. It will all be here at this same exact address, so you don't have to do anything differently. We are going to keep the archives of his first 10 months on this site. The next time you visit the blog you will see a little different look. You can leave comments, subscribe to RSS feed updates, and I think the videos will work better, too. Who knows what else -we haven't really figured all of that stuff out, yet. You will still be able to see the old pages through a link (I realize that no one probably cares about that except for us, but I am telling you anyway).

As far as his crawling goes, unless he gets it down pat by tomorrow, Curt has lost his "bet" of Brown crawling by the end of the week. There is a reason that Curt hates Vegas. Brown is still dragging one limp side around with him, so no new video today. Same as the last couple of days. BUT, maybe on the new "real" blog, he'll make his actual crawling debut. Get excited. Now if we can just get him to stop eating the carpet and the fringe on everything, maybe we'll be making some progress.

October 16, 2008 (DAY 4 of Project Crawl)

I have decided that Brown looks like a wounded soldier trying to crawl over to the chair for cover. Somehow, he is moving. But it still isn't pretty. We definitely need to kick up the child-proofing around the house. Time is ticking...

October 15, 2008 (Day 3 of Project Crawl for Goodness Sake)

He's still inching along on one side of his body. Terrible form, but he's getting around somehow. Slowly. And he has to stop and rest every few inches, which cracks me up. Bribery still seems to be working - today it was Cheerios instead of my cell phone. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

(I accidentally said it was "day 2" in the video, but it's actually day 3)

October 14, 2008 - (Day 2 of Project Crawl)

He's making slow progress. Bribery seems to be working. He obviously needs a goal to make him want to drag himself anywhere.

October 13, 2008

We have had a fun and busy week. Last week, Curt and I went to the Smoky's to go hiking for a couple of days and Brown got to stay with Nana. He had a blast (so he tells me). If I haven't mentioned it before now, Nana rocks. But we love Butter, too (that's my mom). Anyway, we took Brown to his first wedding this weekend, which is where these pictures are from. It was a gorgeous day for an outdoor wedding. A perfect intro for Brownie into the world of weddings. We actually had two this weekend. The second one was indoors, and Brown wouldn't stop babbling, so I had to leave with him. I'm sure he was confused because he knows we think it is so cute normally when he's making all of his sounds, but during the wedding, everytime he'd make a noise, we'd shove a cheerio into his mouth. He was like, "enough already! I'm not hungry! Stop feeding me!" Oh well.

He is getting pretty close to crawling. I feel like people ask us almost every day if he is crawling, and they are surprised when I say he isn't. He just kind of pivots around on his belly in a circle, but he doesn't go anywhere. This weekend is the closest he has gotten. He started doing that cute thing that babies do when they get on their knees and rock back and forth. I think he crawled about 14 inches. But that was it. I'll include a video to show his progress. Since Curt is such a "betting" kind of guy, he has money on Brown being able to crawl a little by the end of the week. We'll see. He's never been a big Vegas kind of guy, so his odds might not be too great. We'll keep you posted.

October 5, 2008

He's a ticklish boy, that one. And we love to take advantage of that.

September 28, 2008

So Brown came to Camp Vesper Point for the second time in his short life so far for a retreat. The last time was in the spring when he was still sleeping quite a bit when he was a baby. Now he is a boy! Ok, maybe we are rushing it but his personality shines through so much more these days that it is hard to compare him to what he was 6 months ago. Chris is leading the music for the weekend and I am mostly just babysitting with Brown as he seems to want to use his vocal chords at all the wrong times these days. Though I think it is cute, I guess it is sort of distracting to have a baby “talking” during the prayer and making it a bit hard to concentrate. So we have explored camp a bit and currently are taking a wee little nap on Sunday. Yesterday, he woke at his normal 6:30 or so but it was so toasty in my sleeping bag that I thought I would just try to sneak in a few extra minutes. So I got up, picked him up before he really woke himself with his morning babbling and brought him back to the sleeping bag where he commenced to sleeping on my chest and beside me for the next hour and a half. It was great. We went on a little boat ride later in the day which he loved. He was standing propped / leaning against the seat and I think he really likes the wind on his face. He has quite the silly smile the whole time.

Brown wants to say something: “Mommy has had a great time playing dress up doll with me. Normally, she changes my clothes about every other day when they get sort of crusty. However, I feel like a debutante here with a different outfit for each meal.” One of the girls on the retreat this morning said “his belly is so cute. I wish that size belly looked cute at all ages.” Well said. Sadly, the retreat will be over in a few hours and the Brown will have to get back to eating, playing and sleeping. Maybe some splashing in the lake. Maybe ice cream. I guess it won’t be that much of a change. Ah, the life of the Brown.

Actually, I hate to break it to him, but he has his 9 month shots coming up tomorrow. So I guess it is back to the real world for him for those intense 2 minutes of screaming which we dread for days.. Those crazy mean doctors and their needles. But we usually go have Indian food after the visit and he calms down pretty quickly. We are getting our homestudy done this week as we begin to crank the adoption process back up again. Brown needs a little sister to play with. He has so much he wants to teach her already and things to warn her about. Like needles.

September 26, 2008

So yesterday we got our old boy back. He looks almost the same as the boy we have had for the past few weeks, except that he is smiling and laughing again. The Brown finally kicked his cough for the most part and is sleeping better and therefore his days are going mucho better. Nights of sleep are good. Also, coughing to the point of vomiting is never pretty. Especially not every day. At least when we are at the lake, he throws up and the cleanup is easy. Just a quick dunk in the water for both of us.

So Chris and I are having grilled cheese sandwiches last Monday and we decide, lets see if he can get a piece of cheese from his tray to his mouth. Like a fish in water he took right to it and has been a feeding machine ever since. He is munching on cheerios and all sorts of little things like that. It is so funny to watch him gum things and then try to fit them between his four teeth he has. This morning, he even held a piece of food in his hand, and bit into it without actually letting go with his hand. Chewed up what he bit off, and then put the rest of it in his mouth. Wow. Amazing. Probably an accident. But his parents are amazed. We know there is not another baby in the world who can feed himself. He is the first.

You can actually tell that he wants to be mobile. He sits with ease, though gets frustrated easily as he sees things around the room that he wants to get into. Yes, we are beginning to Brown-proof the house as anyday, he could start being quite mobile. He is already grabbing up on the table when he is in his walker. Any gate suggestions are welcome as well as we are starting to experiment with some different types.

September 17, 2008

September 16, 2008

We are not ready. It's time to child-proof the house, and though we have been talking about it for months, it seems that we had better get a move on with it.

September 12, 2008

There is a lot of tickling going on in our house these days. Not only are Brown's feet super ticklish, but he goes nuts when you squeeze his thighs. He was giggling himself into oblivion yesterday. We love tickling him. And after last night, I am thinking that Curt enjoys it a little too much. Curt sometimes wakes up in the middle of his crazy dreams and night and does very odd things. The favorite over the last few months has been waking me up and literally trying to pull me away from the pillow that I am hugging because in his dream, we have rolled over on Brown and are squishing him. I don't know where this recurring dream comes from because we have NEVER let him sleep with us. One night, he shot up in a panic in bed and kept kicking at the covers to try and get the "critters" off of him. Yes... he actually did say "critters" at 4 AM. I was dying laughing. He was very serious.

So last night, I was awakened by him flinging his head over to my back/hip and tickling me and making all of the noises he does when he is tickling Brown. I had to very clearly say, "curt - stop. It's Chris. This is not Brown." He sounded so surprised (and still asleep) and he said, "oh... well where is he?" Unbelievable. I think we need to cut back on the tickling.

This video is pretty random. I was just making faces at him and he was laughing and experimenting with the different noises he can make.

September 10, 2008

So, I still think Brown is great. Even though I KNOW that every kid is different, it's hard not to compare what kids his age can do compared to him. I just got an email from a friend who was filling me in on what her daughter can do (Who is a couple of weeks younger than Brown). She is standing for a few minutes on her own, cruising around the coffee table, almost took her first step, using sign language, eating anything she wants like chicken, blueberries, adult oatmeal, etc., waving hi and kissing the mirror. Oh yeah? Well... ummmmm... lets see... Brown is really sweet. And he smiles and giggles a lot. And he is super snuggly. He still doesn't like to eat solid foods very much. If he ever eats anything that is not TOTALLY mushed up to the smoothest consistency possible, he gags... sometimes pukes. Like tonight. All over me. And the couch. And the rug. But maybe he is actually a genius because he knows that if he throws up enough, he will get a "real" bath. During the summer, most of his baths have been in the lake. Tonight... it was a special occasion. The bath tub.

He's really sweet. And super snuggly (shoot... did I already say that?). He makes me laugh really hard sometimes and when I laugh really hard, he goes nuts and looks like he is going to explode with glee. Today, he was kind of fussy and wouldn't go down for his nap. I finally went and picked him up and laid him down on my chest on our bed. He snuggled his head up under my chin and just laid there really still for a few minutes, but I could tell he wasn't asleep and his eyes were open. And then after a minute, he kind of giggled. And he would do that every few seconds. I was trying not to laugh, but then I did. And then he giggled louder. And then I laughed a lot. It was like he just wanted to hang out and be together, and he liked it, so he giggled. We had fun.

September 9, 2008

I went to my 20th high school reunion this past weekend, which by the way was a fantastic time. One of the things with which I was struck was how instrumental many of my friends were in forming my life. As a grown man, this is interesting to look back on. As a father of a nine month old this is scary. Right now, we can trick ourselves into believing that we control the influences on the Brown. This is probably not true now and will become less true as we move forward into his older years.

But enough of that. Brown has still not quite kicked his cold, but he is handling it like a real trooper. Doesn't seem to mind that he has dried nose crust everywhere. Has some pretty good coughing spells in the morning. Needs a good doctor is what I hear (believe me, I hear it...). Despite this, he is eating like a champ - no surprise here. He is beginning to discover more cause and effect type things. He can actually control his walker a bit better and go towards things (like dangerous things hanging from cabinets, etc). His feet are quite ticklish which is a fun thing for all. I don't think he realizes that it is his feet actually, but when you tickle him, you get a great response! He is beginning to say syllables which is kind of fun, sometimes saying things that sound remotely like dada, or hi. Of course these are just accidental and he is just as likely to say aassppfffshshhhaaap. But it is still pretty fun to talk back and forth with him. He is not even close to crawling, though he can roll all over, spin around and look over the side of the pack-n-play. We now find toys that have been tossed out of the crib. Amazing. He will be nine months this week. Hmm.

August 27, 2008

Well... it's official. Today was Brown's day in court (better be his only day in court for the rest of his life - I already told him that). We met our adoption attorney at the courthouse and our appt. with Judge Thomas was at 9 AM. My mom came with us and took lots of pictures. Her first comment when she saw Brown was, "you didn't put shoes on him for the occasion?" Interestingly enough, the thought never crossed my mind. He's never worn shoes. He doesn't walk. Why would he wear shoes? But then I realized he looked like a poor, sad little baby without shoes compared to the two year old who was being adopted around the same time as us and he was in a three piece suit. I think he might should have worn shoes. Poor Brown. But as always, he was charming the ladies in the courthouse and dishing out lots of sweet smiles. They were eating him up.

We went into Judge Thomas's office for the proceedings. He told us that for the last 8 months, we have not really been Brown's parents, but his guardians. And today, he is officially our son. WHAT!?! That was kind of news to me. But Curt and I figured out that if that's the case, when Brown finally gets a job his first responsibility will be to pay us back for 8 months of diapers and formula since he wasn't even our "son" during all that time. So that will be a little extra income going into our retirement fund, which will be good.

All kidding aside, it really is good to have all of that behind us. Basically, now the court will apply for a Birth Certificate for Brown with his real name on it. Up until now (another thing that I forgot), we should have been calling him "Baby", because that has been his official name for the last 8 months. The only time I got choked up during the proceeding was when he asked us what the official name of our son was, and I was so happy and proud to say "Brown Barker Chaffin." I love that he has both of our family names. I love that.

August 20, 2008

I feel like I have been really slack about writing on this thing. There have just been so many fun things happening, that I haven't taken the time to sit down and write about it. So I thought I'd play catchup real quick. August has been a fun month. Lots of play time with Brown and watching him do new things. He is sitting up so well, now. It's crazy how many doors that opens up. He really enjoys books and being read to - he was actually helping me turn the page today instead of trying to just eat the book. He loves people and watching everyone and going to different people - especially the ladies. The boy is a flirt and it is so funny to watch. I loved going to pick him up a few minutes ago from his afternoon nap. He smelled like so many different people that had been holding him and kissing on him this morning. All of Curt's coworkers at AIA and RDA were so sweet and played with him for a long time this morning and even let him nap in their office while I went to my dermatologist appt. He wasn't even doing anything but sitting there being Brown, and I was so proud of him and happy for all of these interactions he was having. As my friend Laurel described him a few months ago, "he's just so nice."

Anyway... last week we were up at the lake and Marcie and Ashley took a bunch of pictures of us in the pool. I love the pictures because it is Brown in action just smiling and pulling my hair and giggling and trying to eat my face. All of that probably doesn't sound like much fun to anyone else, but I love it. I'm going to restrain myself and only put a few of those pictures on here. I know it looks like a lot, but there are about 48 of them that I really wanted to put on here.

My sister-in-law and neice came to visit last week, too. It is always so fun to see Brown with his cousins! Keely likes to pet Brown on the head and say, "oh brownie... you're thow cute." It's hilarious. I really don't think that she knows his name is Brown. She just thinks he is straight up "Brownie." He doesn't seem to mind. He is always intrigued by Keely and loves to watch her and play with her. She is quite the little entertainer. Keely definitely has a lot of Linda Barker genes in her.

August 17, 2008

The Brown would like to take this opportunity to welcome a new tooth into his mouth. We are quite pleased as at least we now have a reason for the past 5 days of screaming at bedtime and waking in the middle of the night for several hours of crying. We thought we were reverting back to the days of being a 2 month old. But as of last night, he seems to be calming back down and having fun again. In fact, we were with some friends, and we got him to sleep in their crib without too much trouble. But several minutes later, the whole pack (I do mean a pack!) of kids came running through screaming like normal kids. We thought, oh no, here we go trying to get him down again. So I walked in and presto, he never even woke up. Amazing. He is now sitting up long enough to play with toys and pick things up and put them straight into his mouth of course. He still has a tendency to fall over especially if he is looking up at you walking across the room. But all in all he is coming along well. Next week we have the final legal matter of appearing before the judge which will be the final step in the adoption. Should simply be a rubber stamp kind of hearing, but it will be nice to have that behind us. It has been a long, unfamiliar road this path to adoption. Thanks for all your love, attention, prayers and support through this whole process. It has been much appreciated. Now just keep it up for about 18 more years.

August 8, 2008

Brown is liking to play "hide and go seek" these days. Actually, it's more like, "watch mom or dad hide and wait for them to pop up and scare me and make me laugh". In the video, you can hear me genuinely laughing and probably enjoying this game more than Brown actually does. Kind of embarassing.

August 5, 2008

We've been so busy house-sitting and laying around on the rafts at the lake, that we just haven't had any time to update Brown's blog. It's been tough out here, but we are managing. Brown has learned to swim! Sort of. Basically, he lays back in his life jacket and flaps his arms around and he starts moving, though I'm not sure Brown has even realized that he is moving because we obviously walk with him in the water so we are always next to him. This video isn't the best because he had already been "swimming" in that claustrophobic life jacket for about 15 minutes and he was just about "done" with it. So it's only a quick snippet of his mad swimming skillz.

Brown is doing much better sitting up by himself, as you can see in this other video. He loves to sit in front of the mirror and smile and talk to himself. Sometimes I interrupt him because I need attention, though.

July 29, 2008

We are house sitting for my parents at the lake house right now, and we are loving life. It's beautiful up here, and several good friends have come into town to enjoy it with us. The big news (it was actually quite small when you put it into perspective) was that Brown got his first cold ever this week! Crazy, eh? He made it 71/2 months without a cold, which I'm sure had nothing to do with his psycho parents who carry hand sanitizer in their pockets and spray down strangers when they get too close. OK, we don't really... but deep down we would probably like to. He got over the cold in 24 hours, so it wasn't bad at all. I feel like we've been initiated or something into "real" parenthood now.

Brown is doing great. My favorite thing about Brown these days (well, one of my top 148 favorite things about him), is that when he starts getting fussy and whiny, I can almost ALWAYS make him laugh and stop fussing. It's awesome. It's like I can see his wheels turning and in his mind as he's crying and I start making faces at him and playing with him, he thinks, "alright, alright...I give... it's not that bad. I know, I know." And then he smiles real big and it is really stinking cute. He's so sweet. Ummmph! Sorry... sometimes, I just have to grunt. He's just so squeezable and lovable. This video shows another one of my 148 top favorite things about him. Brown loves people and being held by anyone and watching people and stuff. But then at some point, his little introvert side kicks in and all of a sudden he wants us all to stop touching him and he just needs some space. So if we lay him down on a blanket or in his crib to be by himself for a few minutes, he is giddy. It's hilarious. Sometimes, the boy just needs his space. So this video is me eavesdropping into his little personal space after I laid him down for some "brown time" in his crib this afternoon.

July 24, 2008

WAHOO! Another milestone for the Brown yesterday. He is FINALLY rolling both ways - front to back AND back to front. This is huge! For one... he seems to be enjoying being on his belly more since he can get there on purpose. Hopefully this will be good for his flat little head so he will stay off of it. Secondly, he can roll over and over like a little roly-poly now, which means he is getting more mobile. Gone are the days of leaving him laying on the couch or the bed, and knowing he would just be laying there staring at the ceiling fan. Now, he might end up several feet away by the time he finishes rolling and bumps up into the wall or the chair and can't go anymore. Crazy! Things are starting to slowly change around here.

OK... let me warn you... this video is LONG! It's 7 1/2 minutes long, so don't start watching it unless you have a lot of time on your hands. I just kept filming and waiting for him to finally roll over onto his belly, and it took approximately 7 minutes and 7 seconds - so you can fast forward to that section if you want to see it. But I wanted to post the video since this is basically Brown's baby book. It is 7 minutes of watching him in action, hearing his different coos and sounds, watching his smiles and interactions with me... so I wanted to keep it all to look back on. It's sweet little Brown moments. He is LOVING the new discovery of playing with his feet, too. So anyway... there is your warning about a ridiculously long video. Cheers to YouTube for all of this video hosting!

July 23, 2008

Brown is discovering more "cause and effect" things around the house. It's been fun to see his little wheels turning in his brain. This huge box has been a favorite toy the last couple of days. You can tell that he feels very strong and powerful. What a gifted little guy. :)

July 18, 2008

He loves grabbing our faces when we are up close to him. It is so fun! And he is mastering percussion... kind of.

July 15, 2008

Brown has had a busy weekend. He started it out with his first tailgating experience. He was overwhelmed with excitement for the UT Vols. He was so excited that he almost slept through the entire thing. The tailgate party was put on by our new friends in Cleveland who are some of the most hardcore UT fans I've ever seen. Yes, they even give Will Haisten a run for his money. The party was to celebrate the fact that kickoff was 51 days away. Wow. So anyway - it was fun and Brown was the littlest... well, youngest guy there.

As Curt wrote on the 13th, we had a nice, relaxing weekend at the lake. It's so fun to see him enjoying and splashing in the water. It was good to be home with him yesterday and have our first "normal" day in a while here at our house. I had several teary eyed, overwhelmed moments of close up eye contact and smiles with Brown that just made me so thankful. I'm not sure if these moments are going to fade away at some point, or not. I'm sure they will be fewer and farther between when he is running around and has less time to smile and stare into my eyes with glee. As much as I look forward to watching him grow up and be able to do more and more things, I sure am going to miss these sweet moments. Everyone tells me to cherish them, and I sure am trying to.

July 13, 2008

Brown had a fantastic day yesterday, splashing in the water for the first time. I mean he has been in the water many times - lakes, ocean, pools, sinks, tubs, baptism last week - and has occasionally moved his hand to randomly splash, but yesterday, he got the full on going crazy kind of splash. He seemed to rather enjoy himself getting water all over his face, in his eyes and mouth without any bother. You can see some of this in the video. It was great. Maybe we will try swimming soon.

Today, the rain may keep us out of the water for a while, but we will probably sneak in for a dip sometime. But being lazy today is great. It seems our time gets sucked into so many activities, mostly into those big blue eyes that came into our home 7 months ago. So having a quiet day is a blessing unto itself and I look forward to taking some time to reflect and be grateful for all the blessings that God has given us. -curt

July 8, 2008

Aaaahhh... it's so nice to be settling back in to home. It was a great 2 weeks at Harrison Bay State Park with a couple hundred middle schoolers, but it sure is nice to start getting Brown back on some kind of schedule. Poor guy. He did great, but he is happy to back and dreaming beneath his mobile and getting a clean diaper change on his changing table instead of a plastic bunk pad or closest picnic table. He doesn't mind the air conditioning, either. I'm including 2 pictures of our little room we were in at Harrison Bay just to show the messy chaos we have had him in. It was actually really fun, and a good reminder of how little we really need to live on (though, as you can see, we crammed as much junk as possible into that little room! :)

Sunday was a big day for Brown. He was baptized at St. Elmo Presbyterian Church. It was really sweet to have all of our family there, including Brown's Great Grandparents (THE Brown's). We are thankful for our families and the heritage that he is a part of.

July 2, 2008

Curt's mom and dad kept Brown last night and today so that I could go to worksites. Becky just emailed this picture of Brown chilling with Granddad in the hammock. Great picture! I can't wait to see him tonight! They are bringing him out to meet up with us at the Evening Meeting at Harrison Bay State Park. All the women counselors were sad he wasn't at breakfast with us this morning so they could steal their snuggles.

July 1, 2008

We are going on our second week of camping at Harrison Bay State Park in a cabin with hundreds of crazy middle schoolers running around. Brown is in heaven because he really likes looking at all of the new faces. Plus, there are plenty of female counselors on these trips who miss their own kids so they love holding and playing with Brown to get their "baby fix". This picture was taken during our staff time when he fell asleep on one of our college summer staffers. He is doing great and loving all of the attention. These are Son Servants short term mission trips that we are helping to run, and it's fun to have Brown as a part of it. He's really easy to have around right now - we realize it may be a little harder than this in the years to come. We'll see.

People at the camp are really amazed at Brown's temperament. He is just so chill and easy-going. We feel SO lucky, because we know it can go either way, and you never know what you are going to get, whether they are adopted or biological. We feel sure that our next one will be a high maintenance little terror to pay us back for these glorious months with Brown. We deserve a little terror. He's made it so easy on us.

We took him to his 6 month appt yesterday with Dr. Jeannie. They were all impressed by his size and weight. He is literally "off the charts", and we like him like that. 23.6 lbs and 29 inches long. He's a real boy! He got 4 massive shots in his thunder thighs, and those tears and his purple strained face are just brutal to watch and kiss. Poor guy. We loaded up his formula bottle with tylenol and shoved it in his mouth. He got over it in 10 minutes or so, and then we dragged him back out to camp. What a little trooper! Nothing else to tell... Brown is doing great. And we are in heaven. OH YEAH!... last week, one of the middle school boys looked me up and down and said, "you don't really look THAT big to have a 6 month old."   awesome. :)  You gotta love middle schoolers.

June 20, 2008

The boy loves to bounce. We really do need some taller door frames, though, because he's about to bounce down to his knees.

June 19, 2008

Well, here I sit. Brownless. Curt's mom is keeping him tonight so that I can get ready for the upcoming 2 weeks of Son Servants mission trips. THANK YOU, BECKY! I don't know if she ever reads this, but if she does, let me just publicly say that Becky Chaffin is the best mother in law and Nana for Brown that I could have ever imagined. She is such a huge help to us. AND... Brown loves being with her and giving her snuggles and huge grins. Huge help! My mom rocks, too... but her specialty is for the older toddler, who will be running around and pulling off all of their antiques from the tables in their home, and making her chase him throughout the house and down to go swimming in the lake. She THINKS it will be easier when Brown gets older. Hee hee. Don't tell her. That will be just the time when Becky will be needing a break and it will be my mom's turn.

So anyway, I should SO not be updating this thing right now, but I know I won't do it for a while after this, and I just got an email from a "hater" who said we weren't updating it enough. Brown doesn't want to lose any of his readers, so here I am.

This week has been monumental in that Brown is getting somewhat monumental in his physique and has managed to outgrow his infant car seat at a record 6 months! So this picture is his LAST ride in his little infant car seat. Curt managed to almost get me choked up by showing me the luggage tag that is still on the handle from our flight back from Salt Lake City. Wow. That really does seem like a lifetime ago. I can't believe Brown is that same kid (just for fun, scroll down to the bottom real quick and look how scrawny and sick looking he was with those tubes in him). I'm so glad I didn't know him like I do now, or I would have had a hard time not ripping those tubes out of him and running out the hospital with him (which I realize, probably would not have been in HIS best interest).

He is doing great with eating the "solids" now. He was seeming to be a green veggie kind of guy, and sort of shunned all of the orange ones. But he downed a whole thing of carrots yesterday, so he is on the right track. I felt like his vision was improving right before my very eyes. The one thing that is kind of humorous about the feeding experience is that I can't seem to keep my mouth closed. It's like when you are playing a video game and if you want the car on the screen to turn right, then your whole body leans to the right - as if that is going to help. Well, when I want Brown to open his mouth for the spoon, I open my mouth really wide. And I've tried to stop. It makes me laugh out loud. It's like trying to keep your eyes open when you sneeze. It's just really hard. So I hope I stop this habit before he is out on the town eating in public, or else people are going to enjoy watching me more than him.

We were using this site as a way to keep our friends and family updated on what was going on out there, but we are continuing it because we've had so much fun keeping up with it. The bottom line is that Brown inhaled tons of amniotic fluid and it went into his lungs and damaged them. However, the doctors and nurses in the NICU were brilliant and were able to repair the damage, so Brown is on the upswing and will soon have strong lungs like all of the rest of the kids on the block. In the beginning, however, it wasn't clear what was wrong with him. They had lots of different theories going - from lung problems to heart problems to being septic, etc. It took a few days to learn that the amniotic fluid had been the culprit, and we were definitely relieved.

December 12, 2007 - Thanks for your prayers and interest in our awesome new addition to our family. It has been quite a ride the last few weeks, and it doesn't seem like it will be calming down to "normal" (whatever that is) anytime too soon. But it is an adventure - and we're glad to be in it together. We'll try to update this webpage as often as we can. Thanks for the calls, text messages, emails, thoughts, and prayers. It doesn't feel nearly as lonely out here in Salt Lake City as it could! The first 3 days of this "blog" are going to be taken from our emails or journal entries over the last couple of days, just to make sure everyone is up to date on what's been going on. This adoption happened so fast over the last 2 weeks, that many of our dear friends don't even know we are adopting right now. Sorry if you feel "out of the loop", but don't worry... we kind of do, too! Start at the bottom of this page if you want to start from the beginning.